Category Archives: Brooklyn Shopping

Recently, the ladies of By Brooklyn contacted us about selling our line of cards. We are so excited that they found us and we are absolutely thrilled to have our cards now being sold in a store. We stopped by there to meet them, and we fell in love with the shop. Everything they sell is made in Brooklyn. From adorable baby clothes, to chocolate, to slate cheese plates, to gorgeous jewelry, this place has it all. One could do some serious damage in the candy section of this shop!

You can check out their website and for those of you who can’t make it to Brooklyn, you can visit their online shop. You can also read about their upcoming events on their blog. By Brooklyn is located at 261 Smith Street, be sure to check it out!

Another 1900s Edwardian Diamond Cluster Ring at Erie Basin in Brooklyn. For sale for $4750.

A few months back I did a post on one of my favorite shops in Brooklyn, Erie Basin. I was just checking their site today and saw, they have another beautiful antique cluster ring for sale. You can see it here. Contact them to see if it is still available!

On to the next Etsy Holiday Gift Challenge, my mother-in-law. Just to recap, I plan to purchase all of this year’s presents from Etsy or other small businesses/artists and my budget is $50 per person. I had wanted to do one blog post a day on this and so far, I am not doing too bad.

So, whenever I think of my mother-in-law, I think of deep and rich colors like cranberry, chocolate, eggplant and other jewel tones. These colors really set the stage for my latest list.

It is chilly out! In fact the only time I left my house today was to go to the store (I tried to subsist solely on the stale Pirates Booty in my cabinet, but that wasn’t working out so well for me). Maybe if I had had this great scarf by BessetteArt, going outside wouldn’t have been such a daunting task.

Wool cowl by BessetteArt.

My mother-in-law is a big fan of coffee, so I really see the following five gifts going together. It really would make a lovely morning, coffee served in a beautiful ceramic mug, cranberry and pistachio biscotti and cranberry sugar cookies all served upon a beautiful handwoven table runner.

And finally, we recently printed deep red, little heart letterpress cards. Maybe I will package up a few of these for my mother-in-law, as well. You can see them over at our Etsy shop. We have them blank inside or with a quote.

Letterpress little heart card by PressedInBrooklyn.

So, that wraps it up for my mother-in-law’s cranberry inspired list. As usual, I have no idea which of these great finds I am going to pick!

So, here we are on day 3 of the Holiday Gift Challenge. Just to recap, I plan to purchase all of this year’s presents from Etsy or other small businesses/artists and my budget is $50 per person. I had a great time shopping for my sis-in-law, Melanie. All of the presents I found are amazing and I would absolutely love to have each one of them for myself!

So, lets start with this fantastic scarf by EcoShag. Love it! They have so many colors and versions to pick from, it was very hard to pick a favorite! To top it off, a portion of each sale is donated to the National Brain Tumor Society and The Make a Wish Foundation.

Muti-color scarf by EcoShag.

I just know Melanie would love this silver, monogram bracelet. And how perfect, this photo even has an “M” on it…like it was meant to be. You can find it, along with tons of other great stuff, in BeadinByTheSea’s Etsy shop.

Also, I think I will package up some of our Susami Letterpress Notecards for Melanie, as well. Maybe we will even customize them with her name. I think she would like that…or maybe we should put baby Gabe’s name on the cards, that would be pretty cute, too.

Our Susami Letterpress notecards, based on antique Japanese textile patterns.

So, that’s it, done with Melanie’s list. Really, finding presents is the easy part, I see that now. There is just so much amazing stuff out there. Picking presents from these great lists is going to be the hard part.

So, here we go, day 1 of the Holiday Gift Challenge. Just to recap, I plan to purchase all of this year’s presents from Etsy or other small businesses/artists and my budget is $50 per person. So, yesterday I browsed Etsy and found a ton of adorable items! One of my favorites are these super cute shoes. They are from pink2blue and you can find them here on Etsy. I love them!! In fact, I loved them so much, I thought how fun would it be to dress Gabe up like a stylish little adult. I was especially feeling the tweed materials and rich chocolate colors.

But Gabe is still a baby, so we can’t be all business. I came across this great little onesie by squarepaisleydesign, with a cute little raccoon on it. I have to tell you, I didn’t realize raccoons could be this cute. We had one last year that ran across the sidewalk and climbed up the tree in front of our house. When we got upstairs to our apartment and looked out the window, we could see its bright little eyes glowing at us from the tree, he might have even bared his little yellow teeth! He was the size of my French Bulldog, but not nearly as cute. He certainly did not have much in common with the sweet little raccoon on this onesie, who, unlike my city raccoon, does not appear to have rabies 🙂

Love this raccoon onesie from squarepaisleydesign.

As amazing as all these clothes are, I kind of feel Gabe might like something to play with. Check out this amazing little lamb from BarkingDogDesigns. Not only does it look super plush and cuddly, but it is pretty stylish to look at, too. Fair enough it is not suitable for children under 5 but he can wait for a little while right, especially for something this adorable! We can buy it in advance and use it to decorate his nursery until he is ready for it in a few years 🙂

Sweet little lamb by Barking Dog Designs.

Just like the raccoons, the squirrels in Brooklyn are a little rough looking, too. However, this stuffed squirrel must be from Mayberry or something, because he is too sweet. Check him out over at SleepyKing.

Stuffed squirrel by SleepyKing.

And we can’t forget about mama. I love this bag. Fair enough, it is just a little over budget, but perfect for diapers, bottles, and all the other items that are essential to carry around for baby. I love it so much, I want it for myself. You can find it here, by ikabags.

I want this bag!

How cute would this art work from DesignByMaya look in little Gabe’s nursery! Love it. As a bonus, if you check out her shop and purchase one of her adorable prints, be sure to mention that you saw her shop on our Pressed In Brooklyn blog and she will give you a great discount 🙂

Love this art work from DesignByMaya.

So already I have a ton of stylish and adorable gifts to pick from. But I also love presents that appeal to my sense of humor. And this “Stormpooper” onesie by geeklingdesigns certainly fits in that category.

It is amazing how quickly this year has passed by. I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is now behind us and the Holidays are fast approaching. We are gearing up to print our Holiday cards within the next week so stay tuned for our Chanukkah, Christmas and Season’s Greetings card. We can’t wait to share them!

Being so focused on the season of giving, and now that we are independent artists ourselves, Caroline and I began thinking. How about challenging ourselves to purchase all of our gifts from other small artists. We love all the support we receive and we equally love returning it.

So, here is my list. Any suggestions would be more than welcome! I am going to start my search on Etsy, but also search some of my favorite blogs and local Brooklyn artists at the Brooklyn Flea. Perhaps it is a little ambitious, but I hope to write a daily post on how my search is going, spotlighting some of my favorite finds. I have told my family to ignore my blog for the next month….let’s see if they can actually do that. And one more thing, I plan a budget cap at $50 per person.

Mom – I was thinking maybe soap. Etsy has some great finds that I have been meaning to purchase for myself. She also loves photography and art work. Florals and birds are her favorites.

Dad – Wow, this is tough. He likes cars. He is also kind of a science geek, so maybe something fun along those lines.

Sister-in-Law: She is easy. She loves jewelry. Something simple and a little rough looking is her style.

Brother: Another challenge. His interests are movies, electronics and video games. What am I gonna do?! However, they do have a new home, so maybe some type of art for it might be fun. I know he is a big fan of Green Lantern. Could I possibly find something related to that?

Baby Nephew: I saw this great little onesie on Etsy that has “Stormpooper” printed on it. Pretty cute and might appeal to the geek side of my brother. I will certainly do a post on this in the next day or so.

Husband: The most difficult of all. He is an architect and pretty picky when it comes to design. I saw some really great laptop cases on Etsy, but unfortunately he just bought one for himself. He likes antiques, so maybe I could find him something interesting and vintage at the Brooklyn Flea.

Mother-in-Law: She would also like jewelry. She loves the stuff at the Met Museum store and I have often bought her pieces from there. Their jewelry is historical and classic. Wonder if I could find something similar on Etsy.

So, there it is. I think I will start with my nephew first since he is the easiest….and since he can’t talk yet, it will be impossible for him to complain if he doesn’t like his gift!

A 1920s inspired hair comb made of a plume of white rooster feathers. Hand beaded with Swarovski crystals.

A little while back we did a post on a beautiful, hand- beaded headband that Caroline purchased from Emily while we were at the Astoria Flea Market. Since then we have been meaning to do a full post on the amazing, hand-made, wedding hair accessories she creates. Not only do we love her work, but we also love supporting local NYC artists and businesses as well! Here we have posted a few of our favorites. All images are from her website.

If you are interested in learning how to create these pieces of wearable art for yourself, Emily teaches classes as well. Contact her to find out her schedule. If you are interested in purchasing her hair accessories, you can visit her shop.